Bahamian Rum Cake

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I’m cheating.  I’m supposed to be posting my free choice from my Heavenly Cake Baker club.

This is not it.

Instead, I have wanted to make this cake for a while now.  It has been marked in the cookbook for ages and been passed over and over again and again, because of my other baking commitments.  But, this weekend I wanted a boozy cake.  And if you only knew the type of shit stuff I have been dealing with the last couple of weeks, I REALLY NEEDED a boozy cake. 

The more boozy the better.

This one was it.

It has rum in the syrup and rum in the glaze.  To the tune of almost ¾ of a cup.

Boozy enough for you?

Because that is boozy enough for me.

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Salted Butter Break-ups [my version]

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After cooking for more than thirty years, I’m still amazed how some of the most simple and unpretentious ingredients can come together and yield something amazing.

Case in point…

Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic plus Olive Oil = the best tomato sauce for a plate of pasta. Or replace cooking all of the above and add some burrata mozzarella and you got the best Caprese salad this side of Italy. Dough, tomatoes, basil, olive oil – Hello pizza!

I can go on and on…

So it was no surprise that this weeks choice for our French Fridays with Dorie was one of those recipes that with something as simple as combining butter, flour, water, sugar and salt you get one the most addictive cookie we have eaten in our house to date.

How addictive?

Well, the first time I made it was Monday.  Since then, I have made it a total of six times – SIX, in less than FOUR days.  If you do the math, it will tell you how popular that cookie was around these parts.

We cannot keep it around long enough to make it pass the day it was made!

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HCB: Devil’s Food Cake with Midnight Ganache

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I just realized that the last post I did for my Heavenly Cake Group was the Cradle Cake, which was back in January – Yikes!  I’m surprise Marie has not kicked my butt out of the club.

I do have to come clean and blame the fact that the last couple of cakes in the list have just not been favorites of mine, and I know myself well to know that if I’m not feeling it, then most likely I not going to make the effort. 

But, I have missed it.

So, when I saw this weeks’ choice, I was ready to go, no only because I been craving chocolate cake like crazy as of late, but I also had a house party to go to on Saturday night and I figure this was a perfect cake to take and share. 

This cake is the reason I love chocolate so much and Rose’s recipes go straight to my dark chocolate heart.  The ganache is made with cocoa and chocolate, plus caramel, just to give it a punch and make it even richer.  While the recipes does give you the option of adding dried sour cherries soaked in Cognac, I opted out of this – the fruit, not the liquor.

The cake does not fall behind either, since uses 99% cacao chocolate, cocoa powder and if that does not make it deeper in chocolate flavor, how about using Muscovado sugar to give it an extra punch? Yep, the cake is like a chocolate explosion.  The batter (yes, I do try my cake batters) was decadent and I almost had to stop myself from eating a spoonful of the stuff.

I started the cake early in the day, since the plan ahead tells you to make the ganache at least SIX hours before using it.  Miss your cocoa powder with the boiling water, vanilla extract and Cognac (without the cherries).  Then chopped up an additional 200 grams of dark chocolate (since I did not want to dirty up my food processor, I basically chopped it up with my chisel and put in a bowl to await the hot, caramel.  Then it was sugar time.

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